course, and, using the word of German origin familiar to Cosmopolitans,
to express an absurd action, he said: "I have made a pretty schlemylade,
as Hafner would say, in relating to Florent Gorka's unexpected arrival.
It was just the same as telling him that Maitland was the Countess's
lover. That is a conversation at which I should like to assist, that
which will take place between the two brothers-in-law. Should I be very
much surprised to learn that this unattached negro is the confidant of
his great friend? It is a subject to paint, which has never been well
treated; the passionate friendships of a Tattet for a Musset, of an
Eckermann for a Goethe, of an Asselineau for a Beaudelaire, the total
absorption of the admirer in the admired. Florent found that the genius
of the great painter had need of a fortune, and he gave him his sister.
Were he to find that that genius required a passion in order to develop
still more, he would not object. My word of honor! He glanced at the
Countess just now with gratitude! Why not, after all? Lincoln is a
colorist of the highest order, although his desire to be with the tide
has led him into too many imitations. But it is his race. Young Madame
Maitland has as much sense as the handle of a basket; and Madame Steno is
one of those extraordinary women truly created to exalt the ideals of an
artist. Never has he painted anything as he painted the portrait of
Alba. I can hear this dialogue:

"'You know the Pole has returned? What Pole? The Countess's. What?
You believe those calumnies?' Ah, what comedies here below! 'Gad! The
cabman has also committed his 'schlemylade'. I told him Rue Sistina,
near La Trinite-des-Monts, and here he is going through Place Barberini
instead of cutting across Capo le Case. It is my fault as well.
I should not have heeded it had there been an earthquake. Let us at
least admire the Triton of Bernin. What a sculptor that man was! yet he
never thought of nature except to falsify it."